Okay here is what I did, I installed 182_setup. That worked great except for the subfolders and lack of MetaData.

So I downloaded D4219 exctracted it, copied it to the pyTivo folder, and made the adjustments in the wiki tickets and now I can't see the pyTivo shares. My config.py is pretty basic am I missing stuff and that's why I'm not see in these any more?

Just a hunch but set up a share on your C: drive. I suspect it's related to the double backslashes.

Also the auto_subshares must be within a share section(s).

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Aside from subfolders and meta data not working I can view all of my shows that are at the top level. I would just rather not have them all have to be in one big long list (this is also the same share for my LinkTheater systems)

And even if you don't want to use git, you can grab a complete package from the "snapshot" link off of any item on that page (preferably the topmost).

What is this? d4219 with all the subsequent ticket fixes ? I hope so -- will save new users and me a lot of posting time.

Note: The snapshot downloads are .Tar.gz format. Windows users will want to install something like ***7-zip*** to extract from them. This is a free nifty solid utility that I can recommend. It also unpacks .rar files.

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can't you just make an installer that installs and configs everything on its own?

A windows installer isn't too hard to create although instructions for installing from a .zip or Tar.gz are pretty simple :

Double-click the zip file to open it (or open the Tar.gz download using 7-Zip, see post #1541). Select everything in the pyTivo folder (use Ctrl-A) and drag it to whatever folder location you choose. The location and name of the installation folder are not important as long as the ffmpeg path in your pyTivo.conf file is correct.

The hard part is the configuration file (pyTivo.conf) which must be created and customized to your hardware/software setup. (pyTivo.conf.dist is a rather poor example of such a file).

If you supply the info below I or an OP will put together a config file for you:

What model is your TiVo? Are you widescreen or normal?
What is the path where you will install to (e.g., c:\Program Files\PyTivo\)?
What path(s) for your video share folder(s) (where you will keep the video files)?
What path(s) for photos and music (all optional - don't have to have them)?

Configuration gets a little more complicated for a Tivo HD or S3 model, in which case there may be a few more questions.

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A windows installer isn't too hard to create although instructions for installing from a .zip or Tar.gz are pretty simple :

Double-click the zip file to open it (or open the Tar.gz download using 7-Zip, see post #1541). Select everything in the pyTivo folder (use Ctrl-A) and drag it to whatever folder location you choose. The location and name of the installation folder are not important as long as the ffmpeg path in your pyTivo.conf file is correct.

The hard part is the configuration file (pyTivo.conf) which must be created and customized to your hardware/software setup. (pyTivo.conf.dist is a rather poor example of such a file).

If you supply the info below I or an OP will put together a config file for you:

What model is your TiVo? Are you widescreen or normal?
What is the path where you will install to (e.g., c:\Program Files\PyTivo\)?
What path(s) for your video share folder(s) (where you will keep the video files)?
What path(s) for photos and music (all optional - don't have to have them)?

Configuration gets a little more complicated for a Tivo HD or S3 model, in which case there may be a few more questions.

I'll take you up on that offer.

I have a TivoHD with a 16:9 tv.

Please let me know the other questions and I'll be happy to answer (because of course your advice is free!). Take your time, everything is working fine (I'm xfering some xvid videos to the tivo now and they're playing correctly (and nicely). I'm just looking for some optimal settings.

Please let me know the other questions and I'll be happy to answer (because of course your advice is free!). Take your time, everything is working fine (I'm xfering some xvid videos to the tivo now and they're playing correctly (and nicely). I'm just looking for some optimal settings.

Good!

Since you are doing so well already and I don't have a HD Tivo, I'm going to let OP fill you in on the optimal settings. Also, if you search this thread over the last two months you will find a lot about optimizing for HD tivos. If you go for very high video bitrates and sizes you may have slow transfer times and TiVo video decoder artifacts. But lower values may not give you the quality you want. See this post for one person's preferences -- but that was for an S3 and he wanted 5.1 Dolby audio.

I'm curious, what version of pyTivo are you running?

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I am glad to see pyTivo still running strong. It is also nice to see that other developers have started contributing to the program as well.

Sorry I left you all, but my time has been taken up by other projects. After a few months away I no longer had any desire to work on pyTivo because it had reached a functionality that I was satisfied with.

However, I recently got a new TiVoHD and noticed a few errors with pyTivo in the subfolders hack.

First, let me just say I have read many upset posts from users about the poor functionality of subfolders and the 8.3Hack. I am sorry, but this is nothing I can control. TiVo Corp. broke the subfolders functionality in Version 8.3 of the firmware and it has not been fixed yet. I have even contacted TiVo developers directly and have still not received any resolution. The subfolders hack is just that, a hack. TiVo sends extraneous requests and I have done my best to interpret what it wants based on those requests.

Personally I run the subfolders hack and I have very little issues with it. I have more than 80 seperate folders and subfolders, thus the auto_share option would be unusable for me.

However, recently I noticed that pyTivo would cause a TiVo reboot under certain circumstances on my TiVoHD. So I investigated the problem a little, and I came up with a solution. But I need to know if this solution should be applied to TiVoHD units only or all TiVo units.

Here is what I need:
1. A TiVo Series 2 user, (Maybe even a series 3 user too?)
2. Running the subfolders hack of pytivo

Can you run the following test for me, beware it caused my TiVo to reboot(this is what I am trying to fix).

Open a pyTivo share -> open a subfolder -> select a file and view its details -> use the left arrow to exit the file details

At this point my TiVoHD would crash. Can you tell me what happens with you tivo? Did it reboot? Are you taken back to the correct folder listing? If your TiVo doesn't reboot can you try this a few times on different subfolders. And possibly even deep subfolders(pytivo share->folder->subfolder->subfolder->file)

Thank you for your help.

On another note, I was able to completely remove the width and height info in my ffmpeg command on my TiVoHD. It seems the TiVoHD can accept any dimension of video. Now ffmpeg passes the video to the TiVo in the same dimension as the source file. It makes a few videos much clearer.

Kevin

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A much better place to receive pyTivo help and updates.

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Does the subfolders version handle metadata? Where does it stand in regard to tickets 56-58 and 62?

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No, it's just with my changes. I haven't really looked into the other tickets (yet?), although I can say that at least your ticket #62 issue is fixed.

If you could incorporate the Ticket 56-58 fixes into your Git version we should have a solid non-subfolders version that can be recommended for new users.

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If you could incorporate the Ticket 56-58 fixes into your Git version we should have a solid non-subfolders version that can be recommended for new users.

I've added 57. I reject 58 for my fork, at least for now -- see my comments on the tracker. I'll accept it if armooo does (though I don't think he will). And I'm not quite happy with 56, but I'll consider it some more.

I've added 57. I reject 58 for my fork, at least for now -- see my comments on the tracker. I'll accept it if armooo does (though I don't think he will). And I'm not quite happy with 56, but I'll consider it some more.

Thanks, but ...

Ticket 58 addresses this problem:

Quote:

....for files that don't have metadata text files paired with them, the name displayed on the NPL is the subfolder containing the file, which is nondescript and confusing.

I read your tracker comment and see your point but this bug causes two or more files to show up on the NPL listed separately all named with the shared folder name. This is bothersome enough behavior that I wouldn't want to recommend it to a new user who might not be using metadata at least initially. There is no way to ID the file based on what's in the NPL.

Regarding 56, this was based on the experience of one user that his TiVo did not accept the ts as compatible even though theoretically it is a form of mpeg2. All the fix does is force transcoding to mpeg2.

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OK, I've tried pyTiVo and Galleon under several different platforms and I've tried TiVo Desktop. I've also read through this thread, and now I've got to admit I'm a little confused. I hope someone here can set the record straight.

Before I begin, let me say that I do not intend for this to devolve into a pissing match over which software is better. I only want to clarify what is available and what is not, and perhaps pinpoint the source of a couple of bugs. To that end, I am going to lay out my understanding - incorrect as it may be - of the state of folder support, and ask anyone who really knows to correct any errors which are in those statements. If this for some reason incites anyone to flames, please take it elsewhere.

TiVo Desktop, of course, just doesn't support folders. Both Galleon and pyTiVo support folders in roughly the same way, and the result is roughly the same for both on the TiVo NPL. To wit, the user may configure one or more source folders to be used as fields in the NPL. Each folder so configured shows up as a separate entry in the NPL. Selecting the folder in question opens it for browsing, including any sub-folders within. All the sub-folders persistently show (0) as the number of contained items irrespective of the actual number of items in the sub-folder. Selecting one of the sub-folders opens it for viewing, but any attempt to go back to the parent folder and open a different sub-folder only results in the listing from the first sub-folder being displayed. The only way I have found to clear this is to go back to the root of the NPL, select one of the native TiVo folders, and enter it. The user may then select another of the 3rd party sub-folders at which point its contents become the only ones displayed for sub-folders.

Reading through this thread, it seemed to me as if there might be a software work-around for this bug in pyTiVo. Am I mistaken? Speaking with one of the Galleon developers, he believed the bug was actually in the HME protocol, in which case, he could not think of any resolution on his part. My own investigations sniffing the packets being transferred back and forth suggest he might be correct. If there is a software work-around for pyTiVo, what is it, and how does it work? Or is it perhaps that the Galleon developer and I are incorrect, and either the bug is in both Galleon and the release of pyTiVo I have, or else there is another way of handling sub-folders?

There are two workarounds. One is the "subfolders" version of pyTivo; the other is the "auto_subshares" option (under a share in pyTivo.conf), which automatically creates top-level shares for every subdirectory. And yes, AFAICT, the bug is on Tivo's side -- it makes a bogus request for the contents of the old folder as well as the new one, for no apparent reason. (You can watch the requests as they come in.)

BTW, it's not HME, it's HMO. HMO is the older, web-server-based system for transferring music, photos, and video, using a GUI that's built-in to the Tivo. HME is the new thing that acts more like an X server. pyTivo is an HMO server, as are Tivo Desktop and JavaHMO. Galleon is basically HME, but not for the video transfers -- that can only be handled by HMO (specifically, by TivoToComeBack, which is the undocumented arm of HMO).

The starting point was wmcbrine's Git fork (see post #1540, this thread) and thus it includes his major reworks of plugin.py and the music and photo plugins.

I made two additional changes:
1. Included the mod described in ticket #58 of the pyTivo wiki.
2. Substituted a much later version (11051) of ffmpeg which I have tested and which handles some files not handled by the normally distributed version.

My hope is that if new users start with this code package, many posts caused by bugs in the current wiki downloads can be avoided.

This download (like the wiki downloads) does NOT include the configuration file (pyTivo.conf) and that will continue to be a source of posts -- unavoidable due to the wide variety of software/network/hardware configurations that exist.

New users are advised to read the installation and configuration portions of the wiki which are somewhat incomplete and out of date but still worth reading -- then scan the posts in this thread -- then post their questions about configuration.

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The starting point was wmcbrine's Git fork (see post #1540, this thread) and thus it includes his major reworks of plugin.py and the music and photo plugins.

I made two additional changes:
1. Included the fix in ticket #58 of the pyTivo wiki.
2. Substituted a much later version (11051) of ffmpeg which I have tested and which handles some files not handled by the normally distributed version.

My hope is that if new users start with this code package, many posts caused by bugs in the current wiki downloads can be avoided.

This download (like the wiki downloads) does NOT include the configuration file (pyTivo.conf) and that will continue to be a source of posts -- unavoidable due to the wide variety of software/network/hardware configurations that exist.

New users are advised to read the installation and configuration portions of the wiki which are somewhat incomplete and out of date but still worth reading -- then scan the posts in this thread -- then post their questions about configuration.

Using your package, I can't seem to get past the first page of listings on any pyTivo share. Any idea why not?

Here is what I need:
1. A TiVo Series 2 user, (Maybe even a series 3 user too?)
2. Running the subfolders hack of pytivo

Can you run the following test for me, beware it caused my TiVo to reboot(this is what I am trying to fix).

Open a pyTivo share -> open a subfolder -> select a file and view its details -> use the left arrow to exit the file details

At this point my TiVoHD would crash. Can you tell me what happens with you tivo? Did it reboot? Are you taken back to the correct folder listing? If your TiVo doesn't reboot can you try this a few times on different subfolders. And possibly even deep subfolders(pytivo share->folder->subfolder->subfolder->file)

Thank you for your help.

Kevin,

I've got a series 2, and I've found this crash behavior to be consistent, since I got a version 9.x of the Tivo software. If I follow your procedure, I always get a reboot now. It doesn't matter how deep I am in a subfolder.
When I back out with the left arrow, I briefly see a partial listing of the folder I came from (I think -- I can check this if you need me to), and then the Tivo reboots. I always know it is going to happen because it always looks wrong as soon as I back out of the details. The crash will also occur if you start a transfer, and then try to go back to the folder rather than play the file, and also if you play the file through to the end, and finish, without jumping out at some time using the TiVo button. (ie, finish recording, delete it or choose to keep it - then it tries to go back to the folder, just like if you back out of the file details view)

The very clunky work-around for me is to always go right to the file I want to transfer, start the transfer, and then use the TiVo button to go back to the main menu before watching the show.

It still doesnt work, but I turned on debug, it really looks like it thinks it is some kind of video. It happens in any directory in my music library. Tivo
Desktop 2.5.1 plays it all fine. It seems to also get mad at non sound files in the directories

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There are two workarounds. One is the "subfolders" version of pyTivo; the other is the "auto_subshares" option (under a share in pyTivo.conf), which automatically creates top-level shares for every subdirectory.

OK, I read this, but don't quite know the difference. Are they different builds, or just different ways of configuring pyTivo. Unless I am missing something, top level folders don't work very well. Every episode of a series shows up with the same name, where as with subfolders, the series name is stripped away and the episode name is used.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wmcbrine

And yes, AFAICT, the bug is on Tivo's side -- it makes a bogus request for the contents of the old folder as well as the new one, for no apparent reason. (You can watch the requests as they come in.)

Yeah, I noticed that when I looked at the data packets streaming across the LAN. I take it you haven't had any more luck than any other developer with getting TiVo to address the issue?

Quote:

Originally Posted by wmcbrine

BTW, it's not HME, it's HMO. HMO is the older, web-server-based system for transferring music, photos, and video, using a GUI that's built-in to the Tivo. HME is the new thing that acts more like an X server. pyTivo is an HMO server, as are Tivo Desktop and JavaHMO. Galleon is basically HME, but not for the video transfers -- that can only be handled by HMO (specifically, by TivoToComeBack, which is the undocumented arm of HMO).

OH, OK. I hadn't seen a reference to HMO in quite some time, but I did read a bit about HME, and I just assumed HME was the foundation upon which HMO applications were built.